"A Bad Experience with a Doctor"

 I had an appointment with a Rheumatologist in the Borders General Hospital. I'd seen them once before and that time I'd been slightly put off by their expectation for me to liaise with my other specialists with regards to organising an MRI rather than just doing it.

On doing this, another specialist's secretary had remarked it was peculiar that they were expecting me to try and liaise between the two doctors rather than  doing it themselves.

At my most recent appointment, they told me that there was a drug therapy available to help with my ankylosing spondylitis, however as they were immunosuppressants they would not want to prescribe them as there was the possibility of me needing brain surgery. I told them that there were no official dates or schedule for this surgery and the mediation could be stopped if such a procedure was arranged, and they said that my neurologist would be consulted about this.

I asked if they had a contact for my neurologist, to which they retorted with "Well, don't you? ". The manner in which they asked this suggested that they thought it, again, was not their job to work together with my other specialists to integrate my care.

It finished with them again telling me it was my responsibility to go between other consultant's and try and organise my own care. I feel this is inappropriate and unprofessional. After this, I informed them that I had accidentally missed an appointment with a geneticist whom they had previously referred me to and asked if they would re-refer me.

They asked my reason for missing the appointment and when I explained I had forgotten amidst a period other health concerns and examinations at school, they told me that "forgetting wasn't a good enough excuse".

After this, the consultant informed me that as I was an adult now "I had to take responsibility for my own healthcare" and missing the appointment was "careless".They were unwilling to re-refer me to the Genetics Department and I wold have to follow up myself if it was something I was "interested in pursuing", even though this was genetic testing for Marfan Syndrome which could be playing a large part in my musculoskeletal pain, an area which as rheumatologist they are responsible for the treatment of.

Their manner throughout this appointment I believe was off-hand and rude. They made me feel that my health was of little interest, and I feel that their expectations of me to organise my own care are lazy and unprofessional on their part.

As a young person with multiple health issues I see a number of different specialists and health professionals, and I have never experienced this behaviour or manner before. Because of this, I also have a great number of appointments, often one every week which is detrimental to my learning, and therefore I try my hardest to try and organise my health care to fit with my school work, and as a result very rarely miss appointments. Their reaction to me missing this one appointment however I feel was inappropriate and unprofessional.